Desu noto
by Ranekaera
Summary: I know, not an original title, but I like the way it rolls off my tongue... Plot borrowed from a different author who I couldn't find, so plot is no mine, but result and other stuff is! The shinigami are declining in numbers! What will the King decide?
1. Alarmed indifference

Okay, I think I just should say this now, this story IS mine, but neither Death Note, nor the main plot idea, is. I have tried again and again to find the person whos fic I have decided to emulate and make better, but to no avail. I just can't find it. If he or she finds this and reads it, know that this is my disclaimer : WHOEVER WROTE THAT FIC ABOUT THE DEATH GOD WORLD BECOMING UNDERPOPULATED AND PUT THOSE ANNOYING CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDINGS, I'M SORRY BUT I COULDN'T RESIST MAKING IT BETTER!!

Again, I state that the plot in this is NOT mine, but the OC is, so no stealing or your name is going in my not-yet-existent Death Note! lmao kidding. THIS FIC TAKES PLACE AFTER LIGHT YAGAMI AND MISA AMANE!

okay, people review!  
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

A/N: I just broke my ? key, so if someone is asking a question and there is a / instead of a ?, please do not fault me.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Ryuk was bothered by the news, as was nearly every other shinigami in the shinigami world.

Apparently, too many of the death gods were getting bored and finding excuses to get into the human world, where they promptly fell in love with the beings they were meant to kill, and died themselves. The population was falling and the shinigami king had called some of the higher ranked death gods to his "throne"  
to discuss what should be done about it.

Ryuk was one of the many who hadn't been invited. Daril, Justin and Nu were among three who had been and no doubt they would be stampeded by curious shinigami as to what, if any, decision was to be made.

For the moment, Ryuk sat in the dusty dirt close by the usual gamblers, Guuku and Deridovely. As was usual, Deridovely was losing.

"Aww, I just got this ring!" he complained loudly.

"Stop losing and you can get it back!" said Guuku, leaning on his large bone scythe.

"Hey, Ryuk, want to play?"

Ryuk had other things on his mind and shook his head once.

"Didn't you guys hear The old man and some others are discussing this right now! We're dying out, apparently," he explained shortly, fingering a shriveled up apple on the branch of one long dead tree. What he wouldn't kill for a juicy red one...

"Baah. Even the King can't do anything about that. Except somehow make more of us, but I don't know how he does it. I know I can't breed, that's for sure," said a shinigami nearby named Rontu. He had a fringe of fur around his sleeveless parka jacket and a black vest on underneath. He wore goggles pushed up on his skull forehead but otherwise, he was all bone. (A/N Yes, kudos to anyone who can tell me where I borrowed the name Rontu from, itr's a classic)

"I know, hence the rule XXXVI. That IS the rule, right?" askd another shinigami who also wore goggles, but with gemstones for lenses. He wore a red tie as a head band and had sharp teeth in his seemingly eyeless skull. He wore a long tattered trench coat and tattered black pants with rather native american-ish boots. Slung on his back with a black strap was a large piece of bone shaped remarkably like a guitar.

This rather ambitious shinigami's name was Erikkan. Some shinigami called him Erik and others calld him Rocker, because of the guitar-shaped bone staff he carried.

He personallly wasn't bothered by the decline of the shinigami in recent years. True, there seemd to be less of them around lately, but he wasn't about to volunteer anyway. He had what one might call "equipment" but it didn't work quite like a human's and wasn't functional in the least. True, he was mostly bone covered in skin and useless muscle , but apparently, the king of death gods hadn't seen fit to castrate and "fix" every single male shinigami. They had all been human at one point in time, he knew, but not a one of them remembered it.

At any rate, he didn't think the shinigami king would decide in favor of breeding. That would be breaking rule xxxvi and nearly all shinigami who had "bits" had useless, decayed ones, most likely much like his own. It was pointless, redundant, hypocritical and would never work.

Much to everyone's surprise, that wasn't what the shinigami king decided on.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSss

PLEASE REVIEW!! I have to go now, now all my keys are sticking... damn it. 


	2. Decree

Hey good news, fanfiction dot net DOES accept text documents. So more updates from me soon!

please review!  
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Daril came back with news of the shinigami king's decision that very night.

"He says we can't break the xxxvi rule, but we can be allowed two notes. One for us personally and one to drop in the human's world. YOU know what happens to humans who use the death note. They go here when they die, and mutate. That's how the shinigami king thinks we can re populate this place," she announced.

There was silence from them for a few moments. Errikan could scarcely hold in a cry of joy. He had wanted to get out of the bleak shinigami world for at least a year now and he noticed Ryuk's grin grow, if possible, wider. The nearly 8-foot tall male shinigami towered over the six-foot Erikkan but Erikkan wasn't in the least bit cowwed.

Months ago, he had gone in search of the shinigami Ryuk, hoping to get the location of the human world portal out of him. He had even brought an apple with him, since nearly every shinigami knew they were a vice of his.

Instead of revealing the location of the portal, the sneaky bastard just told him the story of Light Yagami, the human Ryuk had last posessed.

Well, now he would get to go down himself and damn Ryuk's story to MU.

Without hesitation, Errikan made his way to the northern part of the shinigami realm, to the shinigami king.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Down in the human world, in the Manchester area of England, Great Britain, a young woman was packing up and leaving from her work as a convenient store night clerk.

She worked the night shifts alone and wore tan pants and a dark blue shirt with a name tag. The whole ensamble took away from her appearance, in her opinion. She had medium length dark auburn hair that flipped and flew with ease, whether she moved her head or got caught in the wind. Her hair was the only care she gave to her overall appearance. She was thin but curvy, with full hips, large, honey-brown eyes and big, ugly feet of which she was proud.

Her name was Dominique Lim. She wasn't oriental, despite her last name; it was just the name of the family who had adopted her as a child.

She locked up the regiters and waited for the morning shift person to come in before she went to the bathrooms and changed. She typically wore either knee-length plaid kilts laden with safety pins or, more often than not, long, baggy black pants with every manner of stitching, skulls or chains on them. She wore her hair down, where it fanned out an framed her face like a lion's mane. She knew she was pretty, she didn't need anyone to tell her that. It was just not high up on her list of things to care about.

It was late. All she cared about at that moment was getting home (she lived above a bar and grill in a rundown apartment with soundproofed floor and walls) and going to bed.

She had no idea what tomorrow held in store for her, or that it would change her world for the rest of her life.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I would have loved to make this longer but Im exhausted. Im going to bed. 


	3. Awkward meeting

Hey if there are any typos, it's because my keys are still sticking, so please bear with me. Also, I hadn't realised I'd posted this on the spanish forum o.o My apologies.

Onwards!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Ryuk saw Erikkan saunter off in the direction of the shinigami king and grinned wickedly; now he got his wish, Ryuk could get his; no more boring shinigami world!

Distantly, he wondered what the humans would think of so many death notes dropping from the sky after the Kira incident. It might appear to them that it was raining notebooks! He giggled at the thought and began following Erikkan up in the air, at a distance so he wouldn't appear to be following.

Down below, Erikkan wondered what the human world was going to be like up close and personal. He, like many shinigami, had only ever seen it from afar, in the viewing pools. It looked like a beautiful place in some areas, more like the shinigami world in the rural city areas.

At any rate, he met the shinigami king and got his now-obligatory second death note. He hurried off to a viewing pool to see where he might drop it.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dominique Lim, meanwhile, was currently enjoying her day off just outside of Manchester. There was a nice glenned area of trees and grass that she liked to hang out in when she wasn't playing in her friend's band (said friend insisting on her, Dominique, being the leader) or working.

She unpacked her laptop, to play her music on and then unpacked her backpack, where she had a lunch packed. The sky overhead was characteristicaly gray and cloudy, as was typical of Britain, but that was okay; she liked weather like this. She had also packed an umbrella in case it rained.

She wore her hair down as was usual, a black and red-plaid kilt (with a decorative skull and crossed bones sporan) (a/n: sort of like a loosely draped belt) and a loose-fitting black death t shirt. She also had her death logo necklace on.

She shook her hair out, sat down and bit into her turkey and ketchup sandwhich. Mmmmmm... turkey goodness.

She hit play on her laptop and a british metal band began to play, albeit quietly. A song she liked by Gorerotted, Pain as a Prelude to Death.

She didn't notice the black notebook dropping from the sky until it caught her attention. She had been so intent on enjoying her day off, she was determined to let herself relax.

She tapped the surface of her computer and the music stopped. She stared. Less than five feet away lay the thing that had caught her attention. It looked like a black notebook. Odd. Where'd it come from??

She set her sandwhich down on her backpack and got to her feet, slowly approaching the fallen object. It WAS a black notebook, rather plain, with not many pages in it. She picked it up, curious, and flipped through it.

All the pages were blank.

"What on earth..." she muttered, flipping through again.

She shrugged to herself, sat down with it open on her knee and munched on her sandwhich again.

She supposed she could use it for a journal. If anyone ever found it and read it, no one would know who she was talking about because she and her closer friends all went by pet names amongst themselves.

'It's my day off for once,' she began but was stopped by a sudden shout.

She jumped, not expecting anyone to find her here and looked around.

There was no one.

Frowning slightly, she went back to her writing. Before she'd even got one word out, however, there was another shout of "no!"

She looked around better this time. She could swear that voice had an echoey quality to it, as if someone were speeaking using some sort of vox. (A/N: a vox is a device some singers use to alter their voices to make them sound spooky)

She was about to stand up and demand someone answer her when something landed with a heavy thump right in front of her, crouched down, head bowed.

She jumped and cried out, startled, then stared closer at the man. All she could see of him was a lot of spiked, unkempt, filthy dark blonde hair, a long tattered gray trench coat covered in rags and a pair of wierd goggles.

Then he looked up at her and she felt her own eyes go wide.

It was a skull.  
SSSSSsssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Erikkan had not meant for the girl to find the notebook. There was another human nearby, male, who he had intended it for but the wind must have carried it farther away than intended.

At any rate, she had seen his face now and he knew he did not look human. Naturaly, she was startled.

He also noticed that as far as humans went, she was incredibly pretty. Dark red hair, almond shaped amber eyes so light they were almost yellow, pale skin and an interesting choice in clothes.

"What the boody hell are you?" she asked softly, keeping her voice down. Her voice was deep and melodic, not hard like a male's or squeaky like a woman's, just... a voice. It didn't grate his nerves like Deriovely's voice, at any rate, he thought with a smirk. Well, it would have been a smirk if he could move the bones of his face.

"I'm a shinigami, a god of death," he replied, getting to his feet. He was hoping to appear much taller than her, to frighten her, but she stood as well and wasn't much shorter than he was, perhaps a few inches shorter. She still had to look up to see his eyes and he supposed that was better than nothing.

She looked him up an down, from his boots to his head, and tried touching him to see if he was real or not. He didn't let her. Her hand went right through his arm.

"I'm real," he assured her.

He pointed at the extra death note.

"I dropped that."

Damn, what else was he supposed to say?

"You want it back?" she asked, holding it out to him.

"The minute you picked it up, it became yours. You are the new owner of the Death note," he replied.

"Death note... a note of death?" she guessed.

She really wasn't stupid.

"Whoever's name is written in that will die in 40 seconds. If you don't specify cause of death, the cause will just be a heart attack," he explained.

"Are you serious?"

she was scrutinizing him again, peering closer at his face, her eyes traveling ove his goggles and the tie he wore as a headband.

"You must be, or that is one convincing costume... what's your name?" she asked.

He paused at this. Perhaps he should know her name, too. He looked.

Dominique Lim. Her life span was due to end in twenty years. But she didn't look so old... so she would die young, he thought somewhat sadly. He wouldn't get to spend much time down here after all.

"Errikan," he replied.

"I'm Dominique,"she replied, still not smiling.

"I know,"he replied, without thinking. Damn. He shoul have written the rules in the notebook before he dropped it, to avoid questions.

"You need a name to write... if you're not from around here... you.. can see people's names, can't you?" she guessed.

Errikan was impressed against his will. She really WASN'T stupid.

He nodded.

"Hmm."said the girl, chewing her lower lip in thought. She bent over and retrieved her things, stuffing it all into a blac bag, along with the death note and made her way on foot towards a car he hadn't seen before, because it blended so well with the foliage.

He had no choice but to follow her, walking through the strange metal object to sit in the backseat.

She noticed him in the mirror and frowned.

"Am I the only one that can see you?" she asked.

"Yes. Unless you let someone else touch the death note, only you can see and hear me,"he replied.

"I'm obligated to follow whoever owns the death note, until their time to die comes. I'm not allowed to tell you names and lifespans of other humans," he added as an afterthought. He wanted to explain alll the rules and then get to know her. If he was going to be spending the next 20 years here, following her around, he figured, he may as well.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

please review! 


	4. One bites the dust

okay, here's chapter four, and I'm really surprised no one else is reading this... ah well. PLEASE REVIEW!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dominique pulled into the side parking lot of the bar and grill where she "lived" and got out, locking the doors behind her. She was doing some fast thinking.

If she had a notebook that could kill anyone whos name she wrote in it... the idea that she held such power thrilled her, made her feel... strong. Granted, she was already a headstrong individual (at least according to her superiors) but with the death note, she felt... if it could really do what Errikan said it could... she was undefeatable.

She looked behind her and saw the god of death stride through the back door of the car and follow her up the stairs to the shabby little bar.

"You live here?" he asked.

"No. Upstairs in the apartment. My friend owns this place so I get discounted rent," she replied. True, her best friend and practicaly sister owned this little place and they shared an apartment. It was divided into two sections by a similarly soundproofed wall and she only had to pay half what rent usualy was.

She heard the heavy footfalls of the shinigami behind her and knew he was still following her.

She said hi to Joanna behind the bar, walked up the stairs and unlocked the door to her shared apartment. The second door down led to Jo's half of it.

She threw her keys onto an endtable where she usually tossed them and set her bag down on the couch, where she sat cross legged. She pulled the black death note out and again opened it to the first page.

"What else should I know about this thing?" she asked, barely supressing a smile.

Errikan didn't miss it.

The human obviously liked the idea of a notebook that could kill. Maybe she had been the right choice of owner, after all, not the other male...

He explained all the rest of the rules, as well as a couple he had learned from Armonia Justin earlier in the day.

"The pages can never run out. One small piece of the death note carries all the functions of the whole notebook. You can write yoru own name on the inside front cover but for some reason,that's not advised. Oh, and shinigami can't and aren't allowed to have sex with anyone," he said, as an afterthought.

That last caught her by surprise, her eyebrows making a cybical expression.

"Anyone ever?" she echoed.

"No," he replied.

"What on earth does that rule have anything to do with the death note, though? I mean, why mention it?" she wondered aloud to herself, flipping idly through pages, running her fingers across them.

Errikan couldn't answer that one. He had explained all he was obligated to.

She stuck her tongue out between her top and lower lip and made a thoughtful expression as she grabbed a pen and paused, the tip just above the surface of the first page.

After a few more second's hesitation, she began to write, but not the slow, methodical writing of the uncertain. She obviously wanted someone dead and had already known the cause well in advance. He questioned her about it.

"What do you THINK my friends and I do when we're bored? We think up different ways to kill people we hate in the most creative ways possible. It's fun to talk about even if it would never work," she said dryly. He THOUGHT she was joking...

He sat on the back of the couch and read over her shoulder. Her writing was spidery and thin, slightly slanted, but neat, straight lines.

"Evanna Brime, death by high blood sugar. In 40 seconds, she goes out for a walk after eating a giant slice of cake and neglects to check her insulin beforehand," Erikkan read out loud.

Whoever this Evanna was, must have diabetes, he thought to himself.

Errikan stared down at her upturned, serious face, the large, amber colored eyes, the dark red hair and although he was not cold, he felt like shivering.

This girl, as pretty as she was, acted more like a shinigami than some shinigami he knew.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He watched as she undressed and pulled on an overlong black nightshirt for sleeping. Not a bad body, he mused, but that wasn't his place to judge. She didn't seem to care he was standing there and if she did, she had maybe forgotten he was there.

She climbed into the medium-sized bed and shut the lights off, plunging the room in darkness. He could still see fine enough, but he knew she couldn't.

"Errikan?" she said out of the gloom. She sat straight up in her bed and stared at his sillhouette, which was probably all she could see in the dark.

"Mmm?" he mumbled.

"How old are you?" she asked.

Errikan wanted to laugh. This human was... strange. One second she was a natural killer using the death note and now she wqas asking a childish question that probably didn't matter. In point of fact, he couldn't remember exactly how long he'd been "alive".

"I don't know," he replied.

"Mmkay. Goodnight," she said.

"Dominique," he said, thinking of something.

"Just call me Domi, everone does. What is it?" she asked. She snuggled dwn into her bed and lay on her side, her hair black as ink in the darkness, spreading over the pillow like ebony blood.

"Shinigami don't need to sleep. Technicaly, I'm supposed to stay by you as long as you have the death note, but I get bored easily. Okay if I wander?" he asked. He really wasn't supposed to leave her, those were the rules.

"Mmmsure," she mumbled, and he knew by the change in the sound of her breathing that she was falling asleep.

He moved over towards the window and, extracting his wings, he flew out into the night.  
Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

PLEASE REVIEW!! 


	5. Night out and disturbing dreams

Hey, jumping right into this one. please review!! Yes, Errikan is the shinigami in the director's cut special of the anime who wanted to go to the human world. Since he was never named, I gave him one.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The human world was fascinating!!

The lights, the sounds, the smells, the humans themselves, the buildings, even the grass! His brain was swirling and he was forced to sit down on a bench in the dark. He also had to keep reminding himself that no one could see him. A woman out late with her small child sat right through him!

He got up, slightly uncomfortable even though he couldn't feel it.

He examined again the vibrancy of the life around him, all the names and faces and lifespans. It occured to him that a lot of the people around him were young, hardly older than Dominique, or Domi as she had insisted on being called.

But he was in the human world!! Compared with his own world, this place was a haven of life, everywhere he looked! Thinking back on he chaos Ryuk had caused when he was last down here, he couldn't imagine a darker side to this place.

"Hey!! Lookout!"

He turned at the sudden piercing scream from another young human and saw what their cause for worry was; there was a small child in the street and there was a car coming. He looked for another human with the same name as the child (he knew that a lot of the time, the second name was the same in all families) and saw what must be the child's mother standing yards away, engaged in other activities.

Saving the child was out of the question. One no one could see him and it would cause panic. Two, it went contrary to his own nature. Death was a part of life. This child's time to die was... now. No use stopping it.

The car and the child made contact.

Errikan turned away and flew to the top of a huge building, letting the brisk night air cut through his clothes and hair and into his eye sockets. He had eyeballs in there, but they were pushed back, out of sight.

He landed on the roof, hunched over like a gargoyle, watching the commotion below. He turned his gaze to the sky.

It was inky black, shot through with beautiful pinks and blood reds and deep purples... the clouds had all been turned a deep, throbbing gray-pink and the moon was coming out... it was by far the mot beautiful thing about the human world. It was only approaching dusk. Domi had gone to bed early for humans, he mused. Perhaps she had a job?

He didn't know how long he sat there staring at the sky as it turned completely black dotted with bright pulsating stars. The moon made him feel... different. It was full and shone brightly, putting the stars to shame. The whole thing was... lonely. Beautiful, yet lonely, somehow. Perhaps it was all the black?

Whatever it was, he didn't like the feeling.

He threw himself off the top of the building and soared off towards Domi's little apartment to wait for her to wake up. Who knew? Perhaps he might even try sleeping, himself. To his memory, he had only ever slept when he was bored. He wasn't bored any more; but he needed time to think.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He came in through the window, silent as a.. well, as a shinigami.

He saw that there was light coming in through the door out into the hallway where they had entered and he peered out to see who had the lights on. He was just curious.

He saw another human, the one Dominique had spoken briefly to upon coming into the bar downstairs. Her name... Joanna Myers, lifespan due to end in about 60 years. She would outlive her friend, then, mused Errikan.

He watched as she unlocked the door next to Domi's and let herself in.

His curiosity satisfied, he retreated back into Domi's room and sat down in a chair opposite the bed to wait for morning. He wasn't aware of himself falling asleep.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He dreamt.

He dreamed of a world that was familiar, yet... not. It resembled the human world, yet there were giant ribcages and shinigami lolling about and everytihng had a gray cast to it. There were full fruit trees with ripe, juicy fruit and Ryuk was gorging himself on the apples. There was a thin stream of water running through a field and Midora was having a ball. Even the normally regal Armonia Justin was having fun, picking shiny stones out of a nearby river bed.

But the shinigami world had never, to his knowledge, looked like this.The shinigami world was the realm of death and decay.

He slept on, not aware that as he slept, another shinigami watched him through a window.

Ryuk watched the shinigami Errikan doze in a chair across from a bed containing a human. It reminded him of the many times he would sleep as Light Yagami slept, simply to stave off boredom.

He had seen the other shinigami soar through the sky and into this building, was his only reason.

But enough was enough. He had another human to posess now, an older man, a rather corrupted police officer with a nasty sense of humor. Things were getting interesting again.

He left.

Meanwhile, Errikan was coming to a disturbing revelation in his dream of a combined human and shinigami world.

Every single shinigami he found or came upon seemed happy with the exotic surroundings. Everyone except... he was walking along a dried up stream and found himself. He was watching a copy of himself, sitting on the ground tearing up grass as if it had done him a close personal wrong. Next to him, he saw a limp figure in the tall grass, a pale white figure with dark red hair...

He was jolted awake with a start. He had never, in his life, had a dream so vivid or so... strange.

"Nightmare?" said a voice.

He looked around and noticed that all the lights were on and Dominique stood at a counter wearing a dark blue shirt and tan pants. She looked uncomfortable, he noticed.

He stood up, embarassed at having been caught in a weak moment and cleared his throat, although there was nothing in it.

"Something like one," he muttered, sauntering over to watch what she was doing. She was cooking something on a stove , something that, to him, smelled strange.

"My adopted mother always told me nightmares were signs. Things we were dealing with or would soon deal with, our subconcious had to find a way to sift through stuff like that, and not all that stuff is nice and fun. She used to tell us nightmares were nothing to be ashamed of. I still have them sometimes," said Dominique, not looking at him, stirring something in a large white bowl. He looked inside; whatever it was was thick and pasty white with small blue bits in it.

He thought about what she said for a moment. Everything in his dream had been fruitfull and happy and alive... except him. And beside him, a dead Dominique. He had just met this human, why would he be dreaming about her dead? And why had he been so miserable??

He didn't have answers to any of those questions yet. He figured Dominique's mother would say it hadn't happened yet.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! 


	6. Can I kill?

Okay, I have learned something about typing on a laptop... carpeltunnel SUCKS ASS.  
ok, on with the story.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The more he thought about it, the more ense it made. His dream had been about the shinigami world, sure, and the human scenery was because it was soon going to be teeming with shinigami who were once human. He had probably been miserable because he had to stay in the dead world once more.

But why had Dominique been there as a human? A dead human, at that? He would have to figure it out on his own.

He went with her to her place of work, a truly dull place with all manner of incredibly rude humans. The lights were too bright and everything was too.. neat. He had no other word for it. The other woman she was working with was absolutely mean but Dominique told him in a hushed whisper that that was just because she was pregnant and she was like that with everyone.

Humans were interesting, sure, but some of them were just... wierd.

She was kept busy most of the evening and night and only got to sit down once people stopped streaming in. She clutched her knee and groaned softly but the woman named Justine took no notice.

"Why does your knee always hurt?" he asked her out loud, knowing she couldn't answer him directly. She had found ways to answer his questions all night without sounding as if she were talking to herself.

"You know why my knee always hurts, Justine? I sprained it once when I was a little younger, playing soccer," she spoke up, rubbing her sore knee.

"Great, I don't really care," said the woman sharply and she kept working.

Errikan ignored her.

She had brought her death note and she made a point of glancing at the names on the money cards the customers gave her, taking note of their names as well as their faces. She had killed another person, a man, on her way to work, jotting down a name she knew as she drove, not looking but writing nevertheless.

She had so far written three more names. The death note cover was blank, black, no writing, and no one guessed what it was. They assumed it was a journal, Domi told him once when no one was around.

Finally, at long last, the end of her shift came and as she headed to the bathroom to change, she asked him a question.

"What's the shinigami world like?"

He looked around to make sure no one was watching before picking up the notebook she had left on the counter. Anything in the human world that he touched would seem to be floating in midair to the humans.

She had written times of death for the man she killed on trhe way to work to happen after her shift, as well as the three people she had killed during her shift.

He asked her about it.

"If they all died during my shift, but not after or before, people would get suspicious," she replied, stepping out of the stall and gently taking her notebook from his hands. He let her.

He decided to answer her question.

"It's barren. Gray. Bleak. A wasteland. The shinigami world is the realm of death," he said.

she led him outside to her car and he climbed into the front seat this time. They headed off.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He didn't know, but she was a lot more curious than she was letting on. Not only about the shinigami world and everything to do with them, but him, specificaly. Did his heart beat? Where did he get his clothes? If shinigami were created using dead humans who had used the death note, was that what would happen to her? Would she become a shinigami? Could they remember everything that happened to them as humans?

He had already told her that to give up ownership of the note would be to lose her memories of owning it and she didn't want that.

But she had never met anyone so... different as a shinigami. She wanted to know everything about them!

"Hey, Errikan? Am I allowed to kill famous people, like celebrities?" she asked, her mind wandering, thinking of Courtney Love and Justin Timberlake.

"It depends. As long as their deaths wouldn't severely alter the course of the human race, it's fine," he replied.

So basically she could kill absolutely anyone. Excellent.

She pulled off on the side of the road where there was a little magazine stand and bought two, one of which featured a drunk Courtney Love and the other which featured a slightly younger Justin Timberlake. She hated them both.

She busily scribbled something in her notebook and hopped back into her car. THAT would give people something to talk about, she thought, smirking. Errikan didn't ask what she was smiling about. He guessed she was having fun with the notebook for the moment.

He also knew she was bursting at the seams with questions about shinigami. He knew as much from readin an open journal she had left out that morning. Her observations of himself were scarilly accurate. Everything from his hair to his face, his clothes and the bone staff on his back. She had wondered in particular over that, noticing how it was shaped sort of like a guitar. Indeed, he had seen a guitar in her apartment shaped a lot like it, black with white bone patterns traced on.

She pulled into the driveway at the side of the bar and grill and Errikan remembered again the words on paper of the journal she'd left out that morning, on purpose, he thought. She wondered about all things shinigami.

She would get her answers when she became one herself.

He followed her up the stairs and readied himself for another night like the one before. This time, he did not dream.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssss

PLEASE REVIEW !! 


	7. King

Hai, why is no one reviewing?

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Over the next week, Dominique continued to kill using the death note. During that time, Errikan noticed that, not only did they get along well, they also seemed to think along the same wavelengths. He was trying to decide which human to kill to lengthen his own life when out of nowhere, Dominique suggested someone she must have met somewhere and gave him a picture.

She let him try ice cream. It was cholate, and he loved it. It tasted... no different than he imagined it might. She let him sample anything human that he thought might look good. He had had apples (to figure out why in the hell Ryuk was so in love with them) and they were okay. Not as good as ice cream, but still, not bad. He had tried something she swore up and down was strawberries, and those were very good.

Then she gave him smoked turkey, and he knew he'd found his favorite food. It was... indescribable!

So far it and ice cream were his favorites. His body didn't need it, of course, but it still tasted good.

She had also let him do pretty much whatever he wanted to around her apartment, from her video game console to the refridgerator. She said she didn't mind.

Dominique Lim was adopted,he later found out. She had been abandoned as a small child. Despite being picked on a lot, she was headstrong and kindhearted. She had a vicious mean streak to her, too. He had only known her two weeks now and already he had witnessed as she threw a trash can lid at someone's head.

He supposed he was getting to like her. She was adequate company, anyway, compared to the grumpy woman she worked with.

He had seen a couple of humans come in and out of the apartment, mostly male and the one female, Joanna. They usually talked about some band or other, and he would occupy himself with his own bone staff until they left.

The end of the second week together as shinigami-posessing-human, he asked her if she was ready to die. He knew he was treading awfully close to revealing her time, which wasn't allowed, but this was simply bending the rule. He had gotten to know her well enough to know she probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it if she figured it out for herself, and she was smart enough to.

"That's a stange question, Errik," she said thoughtfully. She had taken to shorting his name and he, hers.

She sat in the shade of a large, leafy tree in the small glenn on the outskirts of the city where she'd originally found the death note and stared at the sky, which was getting cloudy.

He joined her, if only to get out of the rain he could guess was coming. It rained a lot here. He did't mind it, but he didn't like it passing through him, either.

"I don't think so, no. I had a lot of dealings with potential death when I was younger, and now I'm not really afraid. Why? You know smething I don't?" she asked, half serious.

Fear kept his tongue.

No one spoke for a moment.

"I don't have long left to live, do I," she guessed after a few minutes. Her voice wasn't alarmed, or dull, merely... speculative.

"Long enough to do what you like. No time soon," he admitted cryptically. He knew it would get a laugh out of her. He didn't know wy, but he liked it when she laughed. It was a friendly sound, warm and sort of cute.

She giggled a bit but didn't laugh outright.

"I guess if I don't have long, I could deal with it. It's written above my head and won't change, so who am I to stop it?" she mused. "Although," she added.

"Yes?" he intoned.

She turned towards him on the grass and grinned.

"When it happens... whatever happens, I want to die having fun," she said.

He discovered her definition of "fun" later that night at the bar.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The place was dimly lit and Errikan found his seat right at the back of the crowd. He had a clear view of what seemed to be a stage of some sort.

"I've been watching you two. You like her, don't you?" sneered a gravely voice in his ear.

He jumped and saw Ryuk. That guy was starting to get on his nerves.

"Yes," he replied truthfully.

"Tsk tsk. Kingy won't like that," he scolded, but Errikan knew better; he was grinning.

"Shut up," he muttered, for the stage had just been lit up.

Five people came out on the stage, all dressed in black, all dressed as Domi usually did, wearing vicious animal masks. He couldn't see their names or who was male or female. He did spot Domi, though. Her dark red hair gave her away as the one with the snarling wolf mask.

The humans sitting around them were clapping and cheering. It seemed they knew this band well. Domi had never said anything about it being serious...

Her friends started in on the music with their instruments and Errikan jumped.

It was LOUD!

Domi played her guitar as he had never seen anyone play, her fingers flying over the neck and at one point, she lifted her mask off and shook her mane out, tossed her head back and howled like a wolf. She was laughing, her eyes sparkling and her face flushed. She was having the time of her life!

After a few songs, Errikan started to get the hang of the music. He was even starting to like it.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The shinigami king was no fool.

He had known his decision might end in disaster, but it was better to try than failand let the shinigami contineu to dwindle in numbers.

He had been watching everyone who had two death notes, but Ryuk and Errikan in particular. Ryuk because he was a known troublemaker and Errikan because his human was female.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the shinigami. That wasn't the issue. He was also watching Errikan because he could sense the boy was slowly falling in love with not just the human world, but the human as well. Even as he watched, he clapped along with the rest of them when his human and her band had finished playing. The music was unfamiliar to him, loud and obnoxious. Ryuk would approve, and to his astonishment, he seemed to, for Ryuk was there, too.

At any rate, the XXXVI rule was in place for a reason, and not just for the shinigami's lack of equipment. It was mostly put in place so they did not fall in love. They existed to kill, to take life and use it for themselves. They had nbo natural lifespan of their own because they were essentially dead beings, and the dead had no use for fleshy pleasures. The closer Errikan got to the girl Dominique Lim, the more at riSk he was becoming of falling for her ultimately and dying for her.

If he could send a message somehow... but no. He would have to let the boy find out on his own.

It did not do to stray from the beaten path, even in Undeath.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! 


	8. Lifespan

Hey, I would like it to be known officially that my ex who cheated on me is NOT sorry and he IS being a heartless douchebag about it... writes his name in the Note

Anyway, now that I've vented and feel better, on with this fic. Something usually unheard of happens and Errikan has to make a decision.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Over the rest of that year, Errikan and Dominique became friends. Not in he usual sense, where friends might chat listlessly or else hang around, but as friends who hung out together and came up with new and inventive ideas to kill people. She was quite good at making up oftentimes silly and downright brutal causes of death that fit the people they were trying to kill. Like death by mutilation for a man who worked as a butcher, things like that.

He wasn't supposed to tell her lifespans of other humans, but there was no rule for telling their names. They shared names more often than not. Eventually, Errikan had added nearly 180 years onto his life, more than was strictly necessary.

She had managed to needle him with the questions from her journal over the months and he had answered as best as he could. Questions such as "where did they get their clothes and jewelry from", he didn't rightly know. He had taken his jacket from a skeleton in the shinigami world, he knew, but his shirt and pants had been his for as long as he could remember. He had always had his bone staff too.

He let her play with it sometimes. Simple things amused her. He liked this about her.

His dreams as of late had become more disturbing and not just because he was finally beginning to understand their meanings. They began making less sense, too. He was sleeping less often as a result, and instead spent the nights when Domi slept playing video games with the tv on mute or else simply watching her sleep, although he did not tell her this.

He had dreamt just the night before that he and Domi were walking in the shinigami world and the other thousand or so shinigami stood on either side of them, forming an isle for them to walk. At the very end of the line, with his back against a cliff, a faceless shinigami had reached toward him, into his chest and pulled out his heart, a lifeless and useless organ for all death gods. In the stranger's hand, it began to bleed. And beat.

He had awoke from that one with Domi at his side, looking worried. Apparently, he had been muttering in his sleep.

He had finally begun to decipher the true meanings of these dreams. It was absurd and definitely not adviseable and he would never have believed it of himself.

He thought he might be falling in love with Dominique Lim.

Being in love with a human wasn't strictly prohibited; in fact, the fact that it was possible at all meant it could not be prohibited. Not even the shinigami king had the power to ban all emotions. He had to be careful not to save her life, that was all, he reasoned with himself.

But it was tempting. Every time she smiled or laughed in that easy, carefree way she had, he felt at ease. Whenever she was happy, he was happy, too. Her emotions were infectious. Whenever she got so furious she punched a hole in the wall, wherever she happened to be, he felt like either killing someone just for the hell of it or comforting her.

She seemed to like him, too, surprisingly enough. She had been fascinated by him and the shinigami in general since the first day they had met and she could never stay angry with him, no matter what he did that seemed to irritate her. Like leaving the ice cream out of the freezer, he remembered, chuckling to himself.

"What are you laughing about?"

He was shaken out of his reverie by Domi. They were in a noisy, crowded place called the mall, sitting at a far removed table so no one would think her odd, talking to "herself".

"Remebering the ice cream incident," he muttered. She smiled and shook her head, the sun from outside catching her hair and turning one bright strip of it a blazing fiery color. She had her death note open on the table in front of her, a pen behind her ear. She was trying to think of a name to write, he knew. She had already filled up nearly half the book and even though the pages would never run out, she had still written quite a bit.

Vaguely, he wondered if Ryuk had managed to kill off a third of the human race yet.

"How about the woman who was rude to you over at China Express?" he suggested, glancing over at the place in question.

She grinned and wrote the name down when he gave it to her. He had never mentioned the trade deal for shinigami eyes and he would never. Her remaining lifespan was too short as it was.

"Thanks," she said, closing her Note and slipping it into her bag. She had it padlocked so no one could sneak a hand in and steal the notebook, and that was where she hid it most of the time. In a locked bag.

Across the food court, he saw another shinigami, not Ryuk. This one lookd like it might be Armonia Justin. He payed him no mind and though he most likely saw him, he payed him no more mind than he. They were both just doing their jobs.

Another human suddenly sat at their table and Errikan stood up and watched the two of them. The newcomer had messy brown hair and dark eyes and was quite a bit taller than he was. He did not look pleased.

"Jason? What's up?" said Domi, clearly surprised to see the man.

"Joanna, that's what's up. She got hit by a car, she's in the hospital. I just thought you'd want to know. She left you this before she lost it," said the man, and he practically threw a piece of paper at her before storming off, an unidentifiable expression on his face.

Domi's honey colored eyes went wide and her mouth opened in a little O of surprise. She looked innocent like that, but he could tell she was surprised.

Numbly, it seemed, she unwrinkled the piece of paper Jason Myers had thrown at her and read it, her eyes slowly filling up with tears. He had never seen her cry before. He knew she and Joanna were extremely close.

He also knew she needn't be worried. Joanna's time to die was nowhere near. She would live. He couldn't tell her that, though.

"Oh gods..." she muttered. Her voice had a wavery sound to it that for some reason, he did not like. He read the note over her shoulder and marveled at the ammount of care Joanna had put into making one small, scribbled note before she lost consciousness.

Domi, I love you, Don't cry.

All he could do to comfort her was put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't move, but he felt her tense up beneath his fingers. Her skin felt unnaturally hot to him, whose entire body generated no heat at all.

"I'm going to the hospital," she said hurriedly, and she got up and ran out of the mall. Errikan unfurled his wings and flew to catch up with her.

He had faltered because he had noticed something about her that was never supposed to happen. It never happened except in rare cases.

Her lifespan had just been shortened, from a 20 years remaining... to a few days.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

He could only assume that the reason her lifespan had been shortened so dramatically was the arrival of Jason Myers. (A/N: Name has been changed for obvious reasons, joanna is my real life best friend but her brother's name is not jason)

Jason Myers would most likely be the one to kill Dominique. Already, the urge to kill the man now lingered in the back of his mind, but an even stronger desire to live and perhaps meet Domi in another life (it got boring back home) made him stay his hand. To execute Jason Myers before he killed Domi would be using the death note to spare her life and the death note was only used to take life away.

But a glorious loophole occured to him in that moment.

He murmered a hurried "be right back" and as fast as he could, flew back inside the mall, his eyes already scatering here and there for Armonia. Of all shinigami, he was the oldest, smartest and better yet, he knew the rulebook back to front and inside out. He knew Domi had to die, but the suspense was killing him, so to speak. He did not enjoy seeing her in pain, although he supposed he never really had.

"Armonia Justin!" he called out, seeing him at last near a place called EB Games. (don't sue me, EB I'm funny)

The jewel adorned shinigami stopped and turned to face him, slightly surprised to see him flying in so fast.

Errikan retracted his wings as swiftly as he could, landing in a record two seconds.

"I need to know; we aren't aloowed to save human's lives using the death note. Are we allowed to help them physically, make them stay alive just a little longer, if we don't use the death note?" he asked in a rush.

Armonia took a long time to answer. He told his human to bug off for a few minutes and eyes the shinigami suspiciously.

"Fallen in love with your human, have you?" he guessed. Errikan gave a noncommitant jerk of his head and a shrug. It was really none of his business.

Armonia looked around them for a few minutes.

"There isn't anything in the rule book that says anything against helping a human physically, like pushing them out of harm's way, but know this: either way, she'll still die in the end. It's only a matter of whether or not you have the stomach to watch her," replied the skeleton, and he wouldn't say another word.

Filled with a little more hope than when he had first left Domi, he flew off again to catch up with her.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Reviews would be much appreciated, if it isn't too much trouble. 


	9. Feelings unleashed

Hai, you know what? Maybe you guys should review, please?? PRETTTY PLEEEEEASE??

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Errikan had a panicky moment when he couldn't see her anywhere in the parking lot.He flew higher up into the sky and saw her red hair, so far below, and he dove to catch up with her.

She looked over at him and he was astonished to see a couple tears run down her cheeks. He squirmed, a bit uncomfortable, and cleared his throat before speaking.

"Are you sure it's that life threatening?" he askedm referring to Joanna's accident.

She didn't reply, just shot him such a raw, naked look of abject sorrow and pain that he reached out and gently wiped a tear off her face. She had never seemed so... vulnerable. Was Joanna the silver lining of her cloud, to use the common phrase? Without Joanna, was she really so vulnerable?

She looked slightly surprised that he would ever touch her, in any manner (he didn't, usually) that she stopped crying and bit her lower lip instead.

They reached her car and she climbed in, only one purpose on her mind; get to the hospital.

"Don't you dare die on me, Jo."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He was seeing a side of Domi he had never guessed was there. Compassion and a fierce loyalty that he couldn't quite understand.

She drove recklessly, nearly rear ending quite a few people and when she finally pulled up to a large, brick building with several smoke stacks and got out, it never occured to him not to follow.

She hurried inside and practically shang-heid the nurse at the front desk. She directed them in the right difection and Errikan got a chill. He didn't think he liked hospitals. If he had thought Domi's workplace was too bright and too serile, then it was a dump compared to this place. There was a sharp, strange smell in the air, too, like a mixture of death and Lysol. He didn't like it.

"Is this where all humans go when they get hurt??" he asked.

"Yes. Or worse," she said, and she opened the door to their left.

The room was hardly furnished, the floors gleaming white tiles, the windows curtained. There was a tv monitor nailed to the wall and there was only one bed in the room. It looked strange. On it lay Joanna, dried blood streaked across her head, her eyes closed, a mask over her mouth and nose. She was hooked up to some sort of machine where a steady line kept flickering across the screen, all jagged edges. Domi later explained to him that it was a heart monitor and that the spikes meant she was alive.

"Jo..." murmered Domi, pulling a chair up beside the bed. Joanna opened her eyes and saw her best friend standing there. Errikan had no choice but to stand and watch. Domi's eyes began tearing up again and she smiled thinly. Joanna coughed. She couldn't smile; there were stitches running from the corner of her mouth down to her chin and her neck. The wound was an ugly blotched red color, the blue stitches an ugly contrast. He didn't know the girl, but she made Domi happy and that was all he cared about.

He gently set a hand on Domi's shoulder, to reassure her and she didn't shove him away this time. She only had eyes for her injured friend at the moment. He didn't mind. He didn't have many friends in the shinigami world, so he could understand when one was hurt, she would be worried.

"Thought... I was gonna... die," said the girl on the bed.

"Hell no. Not while I'm alive, you won't," said Domi, and both females smiled at that.

They said nothing for the next few minutes or so, until Joanna's family came into the room, at which point Domi took herself to be dismissed.

Errikan followed her out and back down to the car. When they got back to her apartment, it seemed she couldn't hold it in anymore.

She gave a sob and really cried. She had been afraid her friend was going to die, had been almost sure of it, but seeing her alive, she had to throw her old fears somewhere. So she cried.

He wasn't honestly sure how to handle that. Shinigami couldn't really cry, having no tear ducts in their eyes, but they could feel emotional pain and sorrow and maybe even grief.

At any rate, when next Domi looked back up at him, her eyes were bloodshot and the honey amber color they were had lightened alarmingly, making her eyes truly yellow-gold.  
She wiped her face off, which was streaked with tears and sniffled before giving a shaky, humorless smile.

"Being stupid... she'll be fine, right? You can tell me that?" she asked.

He nodded in reply and sat next to her on the edge of the couch. She sat slumped, still hiccuping from crying, but the tears had stopped. She looked tired and absolutely miserable, yet relieved at the same time. He suggested she go to bed, but she refused and instead got out a book she had been reading lately. She read a lot.

She sat there reading it for maybe ten minutes before her eyes started to droop and she fell asleep from sheer stress and exhaustion. He guessed her friend's accident wasn't the only thing she was stressed over. She had been having a rough time of it where she worked.

He wasn't sure if he should leave her there or wake her up so she could lay down in her bed. In the end, he decided to let her sleep and being as careful as he could, he picked her up and carried her over, letting her sleep in her own bed rather than the couch, which was where he typically slept, if he did.

He sat in the approaching darkness of the evening and thought, his elbows on his legs, resting the weight of his upper body. Domi wasn't big, but dead weight was dead weight no matter how you looked at it.

She was competent and intelligent, naieve and sometimes obnoxious, but she was very much alive, a vibrant individual. She knew violence and neglect, hate and abuse, cheerfulness and all the rest, but now he saw another side of her. Stressed and afraid and in love. She could feel compassion as well, for her friends and for the others she cared about. So how could she use the death note so freely, knowing that others might have loved ones who would go through what she herself was going through now? How could any of them, he wondered.

But then, shinigami lived in a world apart from the humans, and this was why. If they got too sentimental, they would not write again and their lives would dwindle to the very edge, killing them. They had to be cold and indifferent and murderous to survive. It was that or die. Up till now he thought he had been doing a passable job.

Domi had changed him. She seemed to change everyone she met, her charming smile and witty sense of sarcastic humor capturing all who spoke with her, making them care for her. Her couldn't seem to help but care about her.

But heknew he could not save her life. She was due to die in two days, most likely buy the hand of Joanna's brother, and he was powerless to stop it. He loved her, yes. He would not die for her.

But when she did pass, he knew who he would be killing next.  
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! sorry for dragging your bro into it, jo, but I had to come up with someone close to you and I din't want jade or claire to read this and be like wtf? Your bro doesnt like me anyway, so wth. Anyway, review!! Luvya sissy wolf!! 


	10. No deviating

Hey, this one is from Jason's POV but I'm not going too indepth. His mind would be a scary place to live for any length of time, so just enjoy and please review. Thanks much to joanna for inspiring me and to the unknowing dan, her brother, whos character I have borrowed and tweaked, for letting me pick on him for thinking i'm wierd.

DID I GET HIT BY A NICE CAR? IT HAD BETTER HAVE BEEN A NICE ONE, NOT SOME CRAPPED BANGER

You... talk wierd sometimes.

I KNOW, LOL

Can I get on with this? And yes, you got hit by a yellow Lamborgini, the guy driving was shitfaced.

YAAY!! OK, YOU CAN WRITE NOW.

Thank you.

Please review.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Jason sulked in his own apartment, nearly five blocks from the hospital where his sister lay in near-critical condition. The fact that she was awake made no difference. This was all Dominique's fault. If it weren't for her, his sister would never have been in that road. She had been running across to hinder someone trying to break into Domi's car and that was when the car had hit her.

If it hadn't been for that pretty little orphan girl, his sister would still be normal, a normal 20 year old girl who owned a nice little business and had a nice, normal boyfriend. And what did Domi do? Turned her into some walking freakshow who wore baggy black pants and death kitty skirts and who knew what else, who owned a bar of all things, and played rhythym guitarist in a punk metal band!

He fumed aboutg it some more before coming to a conclusion. Dominique must pay for what she did to Joanna. Granted, she hadn't been the one driving the car, but if it weren't for her, his sister wouldn't have ever needed to cross any road. She wouldn't own a bar and grille, either.

He didn't know how she would pay, but she would. As he paced his living room, he fingered the blade of a silver knife.

Using his other option for killing wouldn't satisfy his thirst for revenge.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dominique slept for four hours before stirring and sitting up, fully clothed, at midnight and looking around bleary-eyed. Her eyes were sleep-puffed slits and they had returned to their normal amber-honey color. Her dark red hair was tousled and fell all over her face and shoulders, making her look like a mess, yet eerily attractive all the same.

He sat on the couch, watching her and thinking some more on his feelings for her. He loved her, but he would not die for her. He COULD not die for her. She would have to die alone, and for that, he felt guilty. What had to be done, had to be done. He was sure he would see her again, as a shinigami.

And when he did, he would drop a note for Joanna. She made her happy, not him. He supposed he was just a little bit jealous, but what could he do? Confess his love to her? He laughed inwardly at himself for the thought. Looking in a small mirror mounted on her wall and studied his face from a human's point of view. How would she react if he did? He looked nothing like a human, more like the stereotypical version of the grim reaper with blonde hair and normal clothes.

"Errikan... how long have I been asleep?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes like a small child.

"Four hours. I carried you. You were falling off the couch," he replied. This wasn't entirely true, but it would alarm her more than the truth would.

"...Oh... thanks," she said, looking down at the blanket he had covered her with.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Domi knew he wqasn't lying but she also knew he wasn't telling the entire truth, either. He had taken care to cover her up. She probably hadn't been in danger of falling off the couch, but she knew she had fallen asleep.

She looked at the shinigami, reminding herself that he wasn't human and didn't think like one, that it was silly. She liked him. He was a good listener even if he didn't talk much.

She studied his face, making him think she was considering his words and found it infuriating that she couldn't read his expressions. His eye sockets were forever expressionless, his grin, frozen by the skull that was his face. Only the set of his body ever betrayed what he was feeling. At the moment, he was slightly slouched over, his fingers below his knees, looking slightly downcast. He glanced at her mirror.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He knew she was trying to reawd his expression, but being a skull, his face betrayed little to no emotion. When he was angry, he knew his eyes glowed a fiercer, brighter red, but that was all.

What was she looking for? Did she know he had been lying?

Her phone rang.

She got up and answered it, her socks dragging on the floor. She peeled them off and answered it.

"Hello."

She paused and bit her lip. She did that a lot, he noticed, especially when she was worried about something or trying to concentrate.

"Sure... why tomorrow?... I get it. So Joanna can get better... Of course I'll be there. Bring my mask and makeup? Sure... okay... here? Fine. Thanks, Jason," she said, and hung up.

Jason! he thought with alarm. He immediately straightened up, tensed. If Jason was lulling her into a false sense of security to kill her, ... no, wait. He couldn't interfere. This was quite possibly the most difficult thing he'd ever had to do. He had to watch the human he loved die and was not allowed to interfere. He could interfere directly, however...

He flew out the window and into the next apartment.

Joanna's apartment was similar to Domi's in that she had a lot of black and rock metal posters on her walls, as well as a lot of skulls lining the shelves. He found an address book almost right away and flipped it open to M for Myers. He found an address for Jason right away and, dropping the book where he had found it, he left once more.

It was time for some head fuckery, as Domi might put it.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He arrived at Jason Myers' apartment and was astonished at how... strange everything seemed. But then, he had never been to the human world previous to this and what he was used to with Domi was what most humans seemed to view as eccentric. He had thought it was the norm, but apparently not.

Jason liked everything neat and ordered. Nothing was black. There were no skulls to behold. He did have quite a lot of knives, though. He seemed to collect them.

He now knew how he was going to try and kill Domi.

He listened for the sound of an inhabitant and heard a toilet flush somewhere upstairs, then footsteps. Jason came into view wearing nothing but a pair of thin, cheap cotton shorts. He was very bony and shaped a lot differently than Domi was. There WERE a lot of differentiating physical characteristics between male and female humans, he thought distractedly. Jason was shaped more like he himself was, straight and bony and gangly.

Time to have HIS fun.

"Things to do tomorrow morning... get ready for the show... make sure Dominique is there and dressed to kill... got it..." he was muttering, lookiing at a list on paper.

Furious at the nerve of this despicable human, Errikan tore the list out of his hands and Jason shrieked and leapt back. Erikkan couldn't help but cackle like a delighted child. To him, the paper appeared to be floating in midair.

"What the hell?!"

Errikan grabbed a pen off the table and began to write, using his own death note as a hard surface so the pen didn't poke through the paper. Jason was whimpering in fear. His fear was quickly giving way to anger, though, as he saw what Errikan was writing.

Don't go near Dominique Lim tomorrow night. She did nothing to Joanna Myers and does not deserve what you are going to do to her.

He dropped both pen and paper on the floor and waited for Jason to pick it up and read it.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Errikan was acting strange... first he sort of lied about his reason for carrying her to her bed after falling alseep and then he bailed without a word. What had gotten into him??

She had no time to worry about it. She looked at the clock. It was one in the morning. The show was scheduled for later that night. She should be getting ready.

She grabbed her makeup and her wolf mask and some clothes and headed downstairs. Today she had called in sickfrom work, barring a family emergency, and her boss had graciously let her. She had to make sure the bar didn't go to hell with Joanna in the hospital.

She was used to managing the bar and grille in Jo's stead by now, living next to it and knowing her so well. She knew how Jo liked to keep ship.

She got changed in the downstairs bathroom of the bar, a frilly miniskirt and thigh high striped leggings with a baggy black t shirt and sandals, because she felt too lazy to bother with boots. Again, she wondered where Errikan had gone to. He had been following her around for the better part of half a year and she was used to the mostly-silent shinigami's footsteps behind or beside her.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Errikan left Jason's feeling elated. He had played "ghost writer" with the man, who believed he was the spirit of joanna for some reason and had convinced him not to go after Domi.

He flew into the bottom most section of the bar because tht was where he could see Domi's name through a window. She was behin the counter of the bar serving beer to people coming in from the cold he couldn't feel. Her lifespan had not changed. She was scheduled to die that very night. Why?? Hadn't he convinced Jason that he was in error?

Perhaps it was the knowledge that soon she would be dead, but he thought she looked prettier than ever this night. Her hair sparkled in the dancing lights like dark fire, her eyes, so much like honey brown, were alive and alert. Knowing Joanna was alright was making her cheerful. At any rate, it seemed she would get her wish to die happy. She was playing a show that night.

For Errikan, the time passed by much too fast. Her death clock was running down and he was powerless. Such talent, such life, such beauty... wasted by one man's sick desire for pointless, foundless revenge. It made him furious again.

As the hours winded down, Domi and her friends got together to play.

One last show. One last hour. The darkest one of his life. He hoped she would make it a good one.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! 


	11. Dead hearts can be broken

hey, this has to be short and sweet because I have to leave for work in half an hour, so please enjpy tihs heartfelt chapter and review or I KILL YOU!! I just got my death note in the mail!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The lights dimmed and Errikan watched on hepless. A few bar regulars who were friendly with the redhead helped her set up the stage. She had asked him to help her, but he didn't know much more about the electronics on the stage than her guitar connections.

More and more humans were coming in and the bar was soon filled. News of a show always traveled fast, he knew. Domi's band was immensely popular for a small time underground band that usually only played in one place. What would they all say when she was slaughtered before their very eyes?

He found himself very sad as the night progressed. Even once the band had started playing their music, he heard none of it. He just wanted to fix the image of Domi in his mind, alive and healthy, human and having as much fun as could be expected. When she became a shinigami, he might no longer recognize her.

Anyway, the sight of her up onstage, dancing and swaying to her own music, her voice while singing, was what he wanted to remember. Not what happened next.

Jason had been lurking in the shadows, looking positively demonic and strangely disfigured in his rage and grief. Errikan's "ghost writing" had done nothing to dissuade him of his intentions.

At the very end of Domi's song, he leapt out onto the stage, held a silver knife to her soft, tender throat and sliced it open. Her blood bloomed scarlet red and black, spattering the stage and her front and hitting a few people in the audience. Her soft amber colored eyes went wide, her mouth open in a surprised O, her features slack. She gagged and tried to say sometihng, but the wound in her neck prevented anything coherant from being said. Errikan moved closer, staring up at her from the stage, pain in his chest. Though his heart did not beat, it was breaking anyway. He didn't think it would be anything like this.

Blood spurted out of her mouth in a lazy drool, turning her lips red and staining her skin. Her eyes searched for him, found him and stayed there. She tried to smile, but it didn't work. She just looked sad.

The crowd thought it was fake, just for show, and they were cheering, not realizing she was dying. Indeed, her name and lifespan had already disappeared. She was dead already.

He had no reason to stay, but stay he did. He took her hand as the last of her life flowed away. Her eyes never left his, even after the gold seeped out of the brown. Her eyes went gray and her grip on his hand spazzed, then went slack. She tried to breath but couldn't and her throat made a horrible, gurgling sound, like water trying to come through a clogged drain. She breathed her last.

And died.

He couldn't take it. He puled out his own death note and, glaring as hatefully as he could at the now-fleeing Jason Myers, he scribbled his name in the Note. He would be dead by morning. Someone in the crowd would remember seeing him and kill him as viciously as he had killed Domi.

Heartbroken and feeling lost, he took to wing and flew back home, Domi's death note in his pocket with his own, the image of her blood and her lifeless body still fresh in his mind.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

THIS IS NOT THE END PLEASE REVIEW!! DOMI RETURNS NEXT CHAPTER!! 


	12. Shinigami world again

Poor Domi... I had really intended for Errikan to have been a bit more... haunted by the sound of her trying to breathe, and I'm going to incorporate that in just a sec, but I thought I should point out one detail. I wrote, in earlier chapters, that they shared names with one another to write in their death notes; this is against the death note rules, as I now realize, now owning a death note myself. Please disregard that one tiny detail.

On with my story!

ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Errikan was not required to hand in his second death note, which he was still thinking of as Domi's even though she was dead. Her handwriting filled it's pages and it was this, more than anything, that made him wish he could cry. He had not wanted to see her killed so brutally. He knew he would see her again; he just didn't know when. Every little curve of her writing reminded him of her and he closed it and tucked it away beside his own, personal note.

He did not welcome the shinigami world, as long as he had been away. It had only been one year, but nothing much had changed. There was no surge in new shinigami that he could notice. Humans took awhile to die naturally and since only six death notes were allowed in the human world at a time, his return to his own world would signal the absence of another. It could take years to repopulate the shinigami world.

"Stop moping, Errik," scolded Daril. He glared at her.

"Don't call me that. It's Errikan," he said darkly and he turned away from her and the others and walked off across the barren landscape alone. Hearing his old nickname reminded him... and right now, all he wanted to do was forget.

He shuffled off in search of someplace quiet to sit and wait for Domi.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The last thing she remembered was the feel of cold steel biting into her throat and then hot flowing warmth where there should not be warmth or wet. She felt pain for only a moment and then it was sweet numbness. She sought the face of her friend out in the crowd and found him and tried to smile, but for some reason, smiling hurt. Errikan looked sad for some reason.

She heard white noise and static and watched as Errikan loomed closer to her and took her hand and she realized, at last, that he cared for her. He didn't want to see her die. How sweet and hopeless, she thought, before her vision failed her alltogether and she fell, limp, to the floor.

Everything was black now. Errikan had explained that people who used the death note went to neither heaven nor hell, not that she believed in any such places. Humans went to nothingness. Was this nothing ness then?? Black?

Eventually, she became aware that she stil had her guitar on its strap around her and she twisted it around so she had it slung on her back, like Errikan carried his bone staff. She still wore her clothes from the show. She felt... whole. Not dead. Then why was everything black?

She lost awareness of her body again and decided to try and sleep. There was nothing else to do, really. She closed what could be her eyes, although she wasn't sure, and tried to relax. Dying was proving to be a strange experience.

In the nothingness, she slept. As she slept, she found herself dreaming... of Joanna and all she had left behind. She hummed in her sleep, the same haunting, sad tune she had been singing onstage.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Errikan sat on top of a giant ribcage facing into the wind, close by the human viewing pools in the desert region of the shinigami world. He was thinking, the wind blowing his hair back and whipping his clothes about him. The tassled rope belt around his waist got tangled in one of the bones and, disgusted, he tore it off and threw it to the ground.

He figured he was being too sentimental for his own good, not acting like a shinigami. He still loved Domi and wished he knew where or how or even if he could find her here. Would she come to him?

He sighed. It was a strange thought, random, as Domi would have said, but at that moment, he would have killed a fellow shinigami for some chocolate ice cream and smoked turkey.

He remembered the music at the show she had been playing, the melodic way her voice carried, the swaying of her hips as she moved in time with her guitar playing, and then the blood and the awful way her breath had gargled in her cut throat as she struggled to breath, to speak. The others had kept on playing, not realizing she was mortally wounded.

He realized he was hearing her... REALLY hearing her... Her voice was being carried on the wind!! She was here already?!

Alarmed, he unfurled his wings, long and bone gray and ribbed like a bat's, and listened for the direction of her voice. She sounded... the tune was sad, yet beautiful, without words. He didn't care if he listened to that for eternity, the melody was so sweet and simple. It was coming from his left, away from the desert and closer towards the nether regions of the shinigami world, where only the weaker ranked shinigami hung out, rank 10 and below.

He flew off towards the sound, hoping to the King of the shinigami that she kept singing.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

She opened her eyes and was surprised to see that instead of black, things were gray. She dimply heard wind in her ears and could feel with her hands. She looked around before wondering if she still had arms and legs and all. She did, flexing the muscles with familiar ease. But there was something... not right.

She decided to sit up and take in her new surroundings. In a minute, she knew where she must be, WHAT she must be, but it didn't lessen her shock when she looked down at her arms and hands and saw scant white flesh stretched tight over thin muscle and bone. Her fingers were longer and thinner than they had ever been in life and the nails were long and sharp. Her knuckles stood in sharp contrast, jutting out of her hands like razors. She looked down at herself. She wore the same miniskirt with under ruffles (dark purple) and baggy t shirt she had on when she died... she had died. She was a shinigami now?

The realization just hit her like a shockwave. She was a shinigami... undead... practically immortal...

FUCKING SWEET!!

She got to her feet, a bit unsteady, kicking her sandals off and throwing her clothing to the ground, going naked. Her breasts were gone, replaced by a flat ribcage with skin stretched tight over the bones, but not so much that she appeared a skeleton. She stil had some semblance of curves, but that was just the shape of her bones. She reached a hand between her legs; no vagina. She was genderless, physically. Also cool. She could go starkers if she wanted.

She looked around, noticing as she did so that her hair was still dark red. She wondered what her face looked like.

She saw that Errikan had been right. The shinigami world WAS bleak. The sky was dark gray on silver and the ground was fine powder littered with bones of every imaginable shape and size. A few yards away, she saw someone approaching and decided, on a whim, to hide herself.

She crouched down and decided to just watch. The sinigami wore a bone mask and had dark hair, all his limbs covered in rags and bandages. He carried a large bone scyth. She saw a name above his head... Deridovely. No lifespan, though.

She decided to gather up her clothes and move out. She didn't want to start any conversations just yet.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

She had stopped singing, but he could see her now. He knew it was her...

He flew closer and saw that it wasn't. It was just Deridovely, playing in the dirt.

Seen any new shinigami lately?" he asked, making idle chit chat.

"Hnn? No. I thought I saw someone on my way over here, but they went away. Think it was a female," said the bandaged death god.

"What'd she look like??" Errikan demanded. The less intelligent shinigami was so infuriating sometimes!

"Red hair... about all I remember, why? You looking for someone?" he asked.

But Errikan was already off again. He was flying overhead, searching for her or anyone, really. He had no idea what to look FOR, much less where. He spotted a small group off to the right but ignored them. He saw a loner walking far below him and dove. As he got closer, he saw red hair...

He landed in front of the figure and stared. This shinigami WAS female, but she looked nothing like Domi. All white with the same dark red hair, but naked and thinner, more shinigami... wait... Domi would come to this place AS a shinigami, what the hell was he thinking??

He took a couple steps closer and saw her eyes. Her eyes... were the same exact shade of honey brown as Domi's. The hair was the same, simply messier and more attractive, the angles of her face a mite sharper, but she was the same. An incredibly beautiful shinigami, now that he took her in correctly. There was a straight line of stitches across her neck, dry and bloodless and three small deep blue marks on her face near the jaw, but it was, without a doubt, Dominique. She even had her guitar.

"Errikan?"

"Domi??"

They stared at each other for a few moments before Errikan smiled.

"Welcome home. What do you say we find you some clothes?" he offered, happy once more. He offered his hand.

"I thought you said you didn't know where you got them,"she said. Her voice was the same, just a small bit deeper.

"I lied," he said simply.

He led her to the pit of death for some clothes that weren't covered in blood, and perhaps another death note of her own for personal use.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! dRAWINGS WILL SOON BE UP ON MYSPACE OF dOMI AND eRRIKAN!! I will keep u all posted! 


	13. Pit of Death

Hey, he found her again, yaaaaaaaay! please review!! This means YOU, Joanna, hahahah AWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Private joke for all you not-metal werewolves out there. Yes, I'm wierd. please review.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The pit of death, as it was known, was a graveyard for all things really dead. Humans, animals, even shinigami. It was from dead shiniami that most of the shinigami got their jewelry and accesories. Human wrists and fingers were just too small. The clothes they got from all manner of things, animals, shinigami, humans, anything that wore such things.

The entire thing really was a pit, just filled with bones, like a dump. Errikan had been here before but Domi had not. Her large, rounded amber eyes swept the pit with interest. They were shaped like a shinigami's eyes, but brown, as no shinigami's were and slightly tilted like a cat's. The red markings on he chin reminded Errikan of the blood on her mouth when she died.

"You have to fly to get down there. Try it yet?" Errikan asked, gesturing towards the nearly 100 foot fall into the pit.

"How do you do it?" she asked, watching as he unfurled his own wings.

"Concentrate and they'll come out," was all he could think of to say.

She seemed to for a moment, and they did, huge and sweeping and every bit as red as her hair. They were feathered strangely, long and pointed and soft, not like a bird's.

Without warning, she flapped them a couple times and jumped, soaring into the pit below. She laughed out loud and the sound made him happy once more. She might never have died.

He followed her and laughed as she cried out.

"Wooooooooo!! Why didn't you tell me how awesome this was?!" she called out.

Errikan laughed and called back, "You never asked!"

"Whos dumb idea was that?" she called back, and laughed again. She landed gently on the ground below and Errikan did as well. They were surrounded on all sides by things, bones, discarded clothing, fallen jewelry, all the things humans had tried to take beyond the realm of death but couldn't, from the ancient egyptians to the aztecs to modern day americans with foolish ideas.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Look for something to wear if you want. Take anything. I'll be lounging around right here," he said, and with that, he sat on the ground and leaned his head back on a giant rib. She moved like a shinigami; she had to, with her new, slightly longer limbs and lack of any sexual or mammalian organs. She was thin, as most shinigami were, but not a skeleton or a decayed-looking corpse. Her backbone showed threough in places down her back and the bone there was colored red like her hair. The rest of her was as white as the moon.

"Hey, check this out!"

She came back out into the clearing holding a giant bone scythe with red ribbons tied around it. The blade was rusted. Despite that, it didn't go bad with her appearance.

"Cool. There are tons of those here for some reason," he said, taking her old death note out of his jacket pocket and comparing it to his own. He had never notied it before, but hers was a bit smaller than his was. It made no real difference, but he tought she should probably get a death note of her own. Since she owned nothing at the moment, he could see her lifepsan, and it was due to end in one week in shinigami time. She needed to write a name soon.

She set it down and disappeared again, this time coming back with a tattered skirt similar to the one she had ruined with blood. She didn't much like it.

In the end, she wound up wearing the same shirt she had worn before, ripping a chunk out of the back to make room for her wings, and a simple thigh length black rag that had probably, at one point, been a skirt but now was nothing more than, well... a rag. It seemed to serve her purpose, though, because she slipped her sandals back on and now stood fully dressed, her hair blowing in the wind. She still had the piercings she had had as a human, one through her lower lip and another through her now non-existent eyebrow, something he hadn't noticed before because he had been so used to it, so that was her jewelry. She had also found a silver bracelet with a skull on it and two rings, both with skulls. If there was one thing he knew she liked, was skulls.

Then maybe she likes me? he wondered, laughing in his mind at his own feeble joke.

She still had her guitar strapped to her back, in much the same manner he usualy kept his bone staff and he thought it went well enough with her. It was hers, after all. She had had it on her at the time of death and the stitches in her throat probably signified that she was one of the death gods who had become a death god by being murdered, not dying of natural causes.

As they were flying out of the pit of death, Errikan noticed she seemed distracted by something. She wasn't smiling anymore. He thought he knew what the problem was. She was probably wonering what was happening with her human body down on earth.

He decided to take her to the viewing pools, where she could see what was happening in the wake of her death.

He showed her how to direct her thoughts and how to steer the images in the pools and after five minutes, she got the hang of it. She no onger existed in trhe human world, so she searched for the next closest thing; her mother and father, her adopted parents. They were sitting in a cold white room and the woman was sobbing on her husband's shoulder. They were Kittiari and Ayoshi Lim and they were in the waiting room of what appeared to be a morgue.

"Mom... it's... strange to think of them as my parents now that I'm a god of death... we aren't really supposed to have parents, ar we?" she asked, watching the events below unfold. A man in a hospital uniform came out of a door and spoke to the Lims. They got up and followed the man back into another room to sign paperwork and then he had Domi's human body transferred from a freezer to a casket.

"This is.. wierd," said Domi, a small smile on her dark maroon lips. They were more of a blackened blood color, such a dark ruby red that they appeared to be black. Again, probably from the blood that had poured out of her mouth at death.

"Mind if I watch?"

They both turned to look behind them and saw Deridovely, leaning on his bone scyth and staring at them both. His bone mask obscured his face from the top of his head to his mouth, whch was the only visible part of his face. How he saw anything was a mystery to Errikan, for the mask had no eyeholes.

"Sure. We're just watching Domi here get a funeral," said Errikan, weaving a hand at her lazily. He turned back to the viewing pool and watched as the casket was lifted into the back of a pickup truck and driven off by a weary-eyed Ayoshi Lim, his wife Kittiari beside him, still sobbing.

He noticed Deridovely staring sideways at Domi and Domi stared right back and said, "what??"

"Nothing," said Deridovely quickly, and he watched with the rest of them.

Errikan knew she would have to endur many stares like that, though; gods of death were not usually beautiful like she had turned out to be. Death was never beautiful.

They continued to watch, this time closer so they could hear sound and there was a horrible, heart wrenching wail that tore not only at his brain but at his dead heart and emotions as well. It was a cry filled with raw sorrow and more emotion than any one living being should ever have to betray.

It was Joanna Myers's response to the news that her best friend was dead.

"Who is the dead human?" asked Deridovely. The casket was open and there lay the body of the shinigami beside them both, as a human. Her skin was pale and waxy and the wound in her throat was stitched up. Her eyes were closed and her hair looked limp even though it was clean. They had dressed her in formal Japanese wear, a silken kimono and simple black slippers.

"Me... when I was human. I just died," replied Domi. Deridovely said nothing but continued to watch with the rest of them.

A still-bandaged Joanna attended the funeral services and cried the whole time and Errikan looked sideways and was astonished to see the expression on Domi's face.

A single tear slid down her face. Shinigami couldn't cry! What the hell-??

"Is there a way to get her up here? Being down there with me gone will destroy her," said Domi.

Deridovely snorted and got up.

"You're still too human. You'll get used to it eventually. I'm going. They've started to die, so it's only a matter of time," he sighed and shambled off.

Alone again, Errikan wasn't afraid of putting a hand on her shoulder and making her look at him. She wasn't crying. There was just that one tear...

Maybe what Deridovely had said rung more true... sh was still new to being a shinigami?

But he knew she was right about Joanna; living a life without Domi would almost certainly destroy her will to live.

He knew what must be done, but it would require he leave Domi once more and she would need someone to show her how to be what she now was. Unless...

She could get ahold of two death notes of her own, one for her personally and one to give to a human... Joanna. But there would need to be two more deaths of humans with death notes to alow theirs to work...

He grabbed her hand and helped her up. It was time to go to the shinigami king.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsss

PLEASE REVIEW!! Joanna, get hold of me and let me know what kind of shinigami you want to be. 


	14. Permission

Hey, it's kinda late, so this might not be as lon as I want it to be, but meh, what're you gonna do. PLEASE REVIEW!! THAT'S WHAT YOU CAN DO!! REVIEW!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

She had enjoyed flying so much that he decided to let her fly overhead and follow him to the shinigami king.

He called her out of the sky when they got within a couple feet of Armonia Justin's for-the-moment vacated throne of skulls. The shinigami king was just beyond. He warned her not to say anything sarcastic, although he didn't think she'd listen. She said what was on her mind regardless of who she spoke to, and that independance was one of the things he liked about her. It was also likely to get her punished.

"What is it, Errikan?" asked the king when he saw him approaching.

The shinigami king resembled a giant skull inside another much larger one, suspended in midair by chains, with four, three-fingered arms that simply dangled down. His four eyes glowed a constant blazing red and he did not look kindly towards the newly-dead Domi.

"The girl needs a death note. And... I ask that she get an extra copy, for a human, to help repopulate the shinigami realm further," said Errikan, trying too sound as respectful as he could. He had to make it sound as if he didn't care what Domi did or what she got. He tried to make it sound as if he weer asking a simple favor for a human he had "killed", although he knew the King probably already knew, and it turned out, he waqws right. The king knew everything.

"I will grant your wish, Errikan. But only because I was watching the whole thing," he said, pointing towards one of the many pools surrounding the king.

"I quite agree with Dominique, or Domi, if she wishes. Her friend Joanna would be an addition. Go as soon as Ryuk and Armonia are finished, which should be... any time now. Keep watch, and be warned, Errikan," said the king.

Errikan looked up at him.

"I'm aware of your... feelings for Domi, but remember. XXXVI. Hugging and such is pushing it, but not strictly against the rules, however. Keep low," he advised. For some reason, the king had always taken kindly to Errikan. He was one of the more timid, quiet shinigami, but could be pushy and ambitious when he wanted to be. He thought the king admired that in a god of death.

The king handed Domi two new death notes, one with a white cover, the other with a black one, and she thanked him and backed away.

"Sir?" said Domi, as Errikan was turning away.

"Mm?" the king mumbled.

Domi looked directly at the king of the shinigami, showing no fear, simply curiosity. She asked her question bluntly.

"I understand, I'm sort of... pretty for a shinigami, and I know it's against the rules for physical violence resulting in death without a death note, but... is it okay to just hit someone without killing them? I get annoyed easily," she asked.

The king laughed.

"You've got what it takes for a god of death, Domi. I admire that, so since Justin isn't here, I will answer for you. No, violence isn't against the rules, so long as you don't kill as a result," he replied.

Domi grinned, the old manic gleam back in her eyes that Errikan associated with mischief.

"Great," she said.

Before she could ask any more questions, Errikan hurried her away.

So hugging and the like WASN'T against the rules... that was useful to know, and odd that the king had mentioned it. It almost made the rule xxxvi seem bearable.

Domi tucked the white death note into the wasitband of the ragged skirt she had chosen and carried the black one. Some death notes had red or white covers, but they all worked the same as the black ones.

"Um... what do I do for a pen?" she suddenly asked, looking around as if one might appear out of thin air.

"There should be one inside the death notes," said Errikan.

She opened the black one and looked and siure enough, there was a white pen with a nibbed writing point inside, streaks of bloodred coating it. For some reason, the pens belonging to the shinigami seemed to resemble a part of them somehow.

She stopped wsalking long enough to write the words "death note" in a language that was unffamiliar to him as human but legible enough to him as a shinigami. They resembled curliequed M's with a few dashes here and there.

"A dead human runic language, called Theban," she said simply.

"Anything to do with Greece?" he asked mildly.

"Not one damn thing."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

PLEASE REVIEW! Theban is the language of most wiccan's, i.e. pagans, and it has nothing to do with thebes, greece... I THINK thebes is in greece... meh... please review 


	15. Waiting

This probably won't get uploaded until tomorrow, as I am currently streaming invader zim episodes off my frostwire and it could take awhile. Anyway, since no more than 6 death notes can be active in the human world at a time, Domi and Errikan have to wait.

They find out waiting is boring.

please review!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

He led her to one of his favorite spots in the shinigami world, close by the pit of death but more to the north, where it was a bit colder and windier and where very few shinigami hung out. He liked his seclusion most of the time, but it was also nice to have company.

He sat down on top of his cave of bones and she crawled on her belly to take shelter inside it. It was half a natural formation of bones and half of his own doing, truth be told. He had hallowed it out and made it liveable but the bones had already been there. The "cave" was large enough for three shinigami if ned be but for the moment, only Domi was in there.

"This is so cool... it's like the forts my friends and I used to make when we were kids," she said.

That was another strange thing about her. She still had all her memories as a human. No shinigami had their memories of being human, whether they had actually ever been human at all or not. How did she have hers intact? He had had her death note at her time of death, not her. He himself could remember nothing of being human, if he ever had been. So why did she remember? And why could she shed a tear?

He asked her if she could do it again.

"I don't think so... after I got these," she held up her death notes, "I've been feeling... a little ... indifferent. Is this how all shinigami feel?" she asked.

Errikan hopped down off the cave of bones and joined her inside where it was slightly warmer.

"Mostly. We don't have many morals, if any," he replied.

She smiled sadly at him, and it was a very different smile than the one he remembered when she was human. This one was not so warm and alive. This one was the smile of death, although he was sure she didn't mean it to be.

"So what do we all do most of the time? There doesn't seem to be a lot," she asked softly, her voice going deeper and slightly more husky. He supposed it was an afteraffect of her windpipe getting sliced as a human.

He shrugged.

"Mostly we just gamble or nap all day," he replied.

"What do they gamble?"

"Jewelry. Years of their life, taken from humans. If they're feeling really daring,a few bet their death notes," he replied. It was true; Daril had once bet hers, but of course, she had won in the end.

She was quiet for a few more minutes before she voiced an odd question.

"Are there many good looking shinigami?"

Errikan was quiet for a moment.

"A couple, by our standards, I suppose. You. A male named Kiaro. Another female named Sukira. Not many, though. Most of us just look dead," he said, pointing to his own skull for emphasis. She zmiled humorlessly and he had no choice but to smile back.

They sat in the bone cave and watched the shinigami world go by for a while longer.

"How long is this going to take?"

Errikan laughed. She was still impatient!

"Who knows? Knowing Ryuk, it could be any time before you can go back to the human world, but I think I'll wait for Armonia Justin to finish with his before I join you. You know how to fly now, all you have to do is find Joanna," he explained.

He showed her how to direct her thoughts when finding a specofoc human and she got the hang of it quite nicely. There was a viewing pool right inside the cave and she occupied herself for a few minutes watching her best friend. Joanna was a screaming wreck. She hadn't stopped crying since the carting away of Domi's earthly body.

"You miss her?" he asked softly.

"Not really, because I know I'll be seeing her soon. I wish she'd sop crying,though," she replied.

They both watched as Joanna attended the funeral. Domi was being buried in a white casket with black and red roses. It seemed people knew her well, he thought, amused. He recognized a lot of the humans there as ones who regularly hung out in Joanna's bar and more than a few from the night she had been killed.

No one seemed to be crying harder than Joanna, although Dominique's parents were sobbing as well.

Errikan didn't feel like watching. Domi didn't either. She let her thoughts distract the viewing pool and it whirled and showed a view of another place, other humans, other events.

Then she got that smile on her face, baring very small, slender pointed fangs. Even as a shinigami, he knew that grin. It meant she was up to something and it was nothing good.

Those were usually her funniest ideas.

"Want to have some fun?" she asked.

She swept her hand across the viewing pool again and this time it showed two humans, male and female, in the semi-gloom, doing what all humans did. Errikan wondered why on earth she would think this was fn, until she pulled out her death note.

"You wouldn't," he said, unable to believe it. Kill humans in the middle of having sex? But that wasn't her idea.

She wrote the name of one of the humans and they waited. 29 seconds...30...35...37...38...39...40.

The man stopped moving, his limbs went slack, his eyes closed, his heart stopped beating. His name and lifespan disappeared. The woman, having seen nothing wrong, kept moving and thrusting and moaning, not realizing she was with a corpse.

Errikan grinned evilly. She really WAS twisted!

She threw her head back and laughed and it was Domi alright. Errikan laughed with her.

The woman in the viewing pool got off, he assumed, because she stopped moving and smiled as she touched the dead man beside her. The man, of course, didn't move. She shook him. He didn't move. She hit him. He still didn't move.

She realized he was dead. And she started to scream in fear and disgust, and self loathing.

They hadn't realized how loud they were both laughing until a voice behind them said, "what's so funny?"

Errikan turned and saw Ryuk with his usual joker's grin, holding his two death notes and staring at the both of them. Domi banished the pool and looked around as well, her wild mane of long dark red hair outlining the anles of her face.

Ryuk stared at her for a moment.

"New girl?" he guessed.

"Domi," she corrected him.

"The name's Ryuk. You can go to the human world now, Errikan," he said to both of them.

"Actually, I'm not going until after she does," he said, pointing to her.

"I'm going now," said Domi with determination. She got to her feet and loped past Ryuk and out into the open, then stopped.

"How do you get to the hman world?" she asked.

Ryuk cackled and Errikan smiled. He would show her the way.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE REVIEW!! you'll see more Ryuk in future, I promise. 


End file.
